As of January, Steven Cousins – the first African-American attorney, partner and Executive Committee member at Armstrong Teasdale – will set out on his own as president and CEO of Cousins Allied Strategic Advisors, with a cornerstone client he identified only as “a nationally prominent family of companies doing business across the country.”
He also will remain a consultant to the firm, which he served for 38 years. Cousins has played a pivotal role in nationally known bankruptcy practice of Armstrong Teasdale. He founded the firm’s Financial Restructuring, Reorganization and Bankruptcy practice area in 1984, becoming the first associate to lead a practice, and has been involved in a litany of historically significant events in the bankruptcy world.
“We can’t cut corners, we can’t misrepresent, we can’t shade,” Cousins has explained his legal practice to The American. “You’ve got to speak with clarity and conviction and you’ve got to win a case based on the facts, not on a technicality.”
In his new practice as a consultant and strategic advisor, he will provide high-level strategic advice to a select group of clients while also continuing to provide counsel to various Armstrong Teasdale clients.
Most recently, he served as co-counsel for Peabody Energy, the largest private sector coal company in the world; and Payless Shoe Source, Inc., the largest specialty family shoe retailer in the Western Hemisphere. He also has served as general counsel to the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association (RCGA) for 25 years.
Moreover, Cousins led the defense team that successfully represented former HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson in a three-year Department of Justice investigation.
In the civic sector, Cousins has been involved with over 25 boards, including the St. Louis Internship program (SLIP), serving as co-chair since its inception in 1992 until 2005, and is founder and past co-chair of the St. Louis Public Schools Foundation. He previously provided legal assistance to the national office of the NAACP on a pro bono basis during a time when the organization experienced financial tumult.
Most recently, in October, he was selected to join the advisory board of the prestigious Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University, which is the pre-eminent research center focusing on the history and culture of people of African descent all over the world.
He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and was most recently recognized in 2017 with The Missouri Bar Foundation Martin J. Purcell Award for professionalism, which also recognizes commitment and success outside the courtroom and corner office.
“They go hand in glove, professional excellence and civic excellence,” Cousins told The American when he won the award. “They’re both sort of puzzling through problems, to solve what’s ailing the clients or to solve what’s ailing your community.”
